risk life and limb

Idioms

Also, risk one's neck. Take dangerous chances, as in There he was on the roof, risking life and limb to rescue the kitten, or I don't want to risk my neck contradicting him. The first hyperbolic expression, dating from the early 1600s, doesn't make sense, since if one loses one's life one also loses the use of one's limbs. The variant, used for risky undertakings of all kinds, physical and nonphysical, presumably alludes to being hanged or beheaded. Also see stick one's neck out.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

To convert the CG-animated “How to Train Your Dragon” to live action, all filmmakers had to do was risk life and limb in helicopters and find, you know, dragons.

From Los Angeles Times

Most of all, the film offers an affecting story of a species told through a single cave, where according to researchers including Fuentes and the paleoanthropologist Lee Berger, the naledi would risk life and limb to memorialize their dead.

From New York Times

“It is a relatively modest amount that we are contributing without being asked to risk life and limb,” Wicker told the AP.

From Seattle Times

“As temperatures remain dangerously low all along the border, no one should put their lives in the hands of smugglers, or risk life and limb attempting to cross only to be returned,” officials warned.

From Washington Times

“It is entirely speculative that aliens willing to ‘risk life and limb’ to cross the border via the gap on Mr. Chilton’s property would have decided the risk wasn’t worth it if their next-best option was to cross via the many other gaps that would have remained regardless of Defendants’ conduct,” Judge Lanza ruled.

From Washington Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023